Determination of aliphatic aldehydes in waters by high-performance liquid chromatography

Abstract A method is described for the determination of linear aldehydes (C 1 –C 8 ) in waters. Aldehydes are extracted into n-pentane after derivatization with 2,4-dinitrophenyhydrazine and quantified by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with detection at 365 nm. With a 250-ml sample, the limit of detection is 1 μg l −1 for the C 1 –C 8 aldehydes. The method is directly applicable to surface waters and drinking water. Analysis of different surface waters, treated water and a humic acid solution after ozonization showed that C 1 –C 3 aldehydes predominated, their concentration increasing with increasing ozone dosage.